Happy First Week

We have managed our first week as a family of four. In reality we have managed due to my mom being in town and all of our friends who have kept us well fed. Thanks to all who have brought us such great food. Our fridge and freezer are stocked!GranAnn and granddaughter #2. We were trying to get a picture of my mom with both girls but granddaughter #1 was too busy running laps around our kitchen island.

The biggest reason we are managing so well is that Juliet really couldn't be an easier baby. Of course she wakes up every two to three hours during the night but she is suppose to. This series of photos shows her chill personality. I am by no means bragging as we have lived through a semi-colicky baby who took four months to even start learning how to sleep. I know Juliet can change in a moment but for now we will enjoy her being such an easy baby. We are fully expecting more difficult days and nights ahead of us.
Amelia for the most part is adjusting well. She is a toddler so it is almost impossible to decipher when her toddler moments are just that or her expressing her feelings about our new house guest. She loves to give Juliet hugs and kisses and as I imagine all parents do we are working on her being gentle as her hugs typically resemble a wrestling match.
She does open her eyes! Juliet was happy and cozy after her first bath. We spoiled her and steamed the bathroom up for her!

So our next big adjustment is that of Mark going back to work this week. Of course I'm a bit anxious but I keep telling myself that I'm not the first mom to have two little girls to take care of. Amelia is going to keep going to daycare Tuesday-Thursday. She really loves her classroom and we decided it would be good for her to keep life as she knows it. This week with Mark home Amelia has had a constant playmate. She used to be satisfied putting all her "friends" to bed but has learned that using daddy as her doll is a lot more fun!

Juliet Jennifer Lang

I suppose I was wrong when I thought our little one would arrive close to my March 13th due date. Juliet Jennifer surprised us and came just after lunch yesterday. She is our little 6lb peanut and perfectly healthy.

Sorry to disappoint those hoping to hear a good "arrival" story but her entry wasn't as eventful as Amelia's. It did go just as quickly but we were more prepared this time and arrived at the hospital much earlier. Thankfully our neighbor doesn't work on Fridays so Maria and her two little boys William and Henry were happy to have Amelia for the day. Amelia LOVES playing at their home so it was reassuring to know she was happy and well taken care of. Thanks Stephans!

With Amelia safely tucked away at "HenryWilliams" I drove myself to the hospital as Mark was at work. That was a bit strange to drive myself but I didn't really want to take a cab and with Mark's office the opposite direction of Prentice we weren't sure he had time to come get me. Around 1pm Mark told the nurses the baby was coming and they needed to page the midwife who was making rounds. I'm not sure they believed him but he was pretty adamant so they did page our midwife. Knowing how quickly Amelia arrived the midwife took the stairs to the labor & delivery floor instead of waiting for the elevator. She still wasn't quick enough so the nurses did a great job safely delivering Juliet. A fun fact; Merrill was also delivered by a nurse before a doctor could get there. It may have been quick but it was intense!

Sisters meeting for the first time! Amelia has taken to calling Juliet,"that guy" and already blames her for things. After tooting while eating dinner tonight she said, "who tooted? That guy tooted?"

Big sis enjoying the view, fishies and introducing Juliet to the KU/Mizzou rivalry. I'm still in a bit of shock that my baby #1 is a big sister. The thought that she is old enough to be a big sister may be too much for my hormonal self to think about.

We were given the option of going home today which is super tempting. However, the amazing view of Lake Michigan from our room is hidden by blowing, blustery snow. Spring is a lovely time in Chicago.... Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer so I think we will just hang here another night and head home tomorrow. Plus Amelia is at home being spoiled rotten by GranAnn so we figured she could use another dose of attention before her world is turned upside down.

Tomorrow we will head home to begin our life of a household of girls and daddy. Mark said the whole pregnancy that he knew we were having a girl so he must have know that he was destined to a life of pink, dress-up and drama.

Getting Close

We are getting pretty darn close to my March 13th due date and I have the appetite and stomach to prove it. I think our home projects are winding down and my work deadlines are out the door so I'm hoping for some good R&R until baby comes.

Our freezer is loaded with Trader Joe's, bags are partly packed, the infant car seat is installed, etc. So now we are just playing the waiting game. Considering how Amelia entered the world, Mark and I are both a bit anxious about the logistics of having Amelia tucked away in a safe place and making it to the hospital. Between our neighbors, friends, family and Jenn I think we have enough options to make it work. I don't get the feeling that this little one is quite ready to join our family. I'm feeling fine so I suppose I need to make peace with the idea that the baby will come when he/she is good and ready. Talk to me next week and I will probably feel very different! Amelia and I like to play, "whose stomach is bigger?" I passed her up months ago but it still doesn't get old especially when her response is, "DADA!"

Amelia is still showing her gift for fashion design. Yep, her onesie is buttoned over her pants.

Hanging with Baby Greta has been good practice for Amelia. Greta is a total trooper with the variety of vegetables she will eat so we are hoping her good habits rub off on Amelia. We are having issues now at dinner as Amelia could eat an ENTIRE cantaloupe (or orange watermelon as she calls it) in one sitting but won't eat anything else. I think we better not buy any cantaloupe this weekend at the grocery store so she is forced to eat something else. I suppose we will know soon if Charlie will get a boy to hang with or if he will be stuck in a world of lady Langs......

Now off to a box of Thin Mints that Mark claimed he had to buy from the Girl Scouts outside of the grocery store.

The Chicago Way

Here in Chicago we headed to the polls today to elect a mayor and neighborhood Aldermen.

After her first parent teacher conference we made our way to the poll. Not to digress but parent teacher conferences for a two year old, that is funny. We were not told that Amelia is the class bully, steals from other kids or is disruptive to her class so I would say it was successful.

Back to voting. I told her we were headed to vote. To which she said, "burp? say scuse me." I then tried to correct her by telling her, "no we aren't going to burp we are going to vote. But yes if you were to burp you should say excuse me." Her response, "I want to go with mama to ride a boat." Third time was a charm and she did walk into the polling place saying, "I go vote."

In the city where the deceased historically have voted and the presumed winner wasn't even cleared to be on the ballot until the day after they started printing ballots Amelia figured she could cast a ballot. She LOVED the touch screen ballots and proudly left with her "I Voted" sticker.

Feeling the Love

Surely Amelia felt lots of love this Valentine's Day. Her holiday started with a trip to Midway to pick-up GranAnn. We normally make our airport runs during nap time so Amelia thought it was pretty cool to get to go with me to the airport. Amelia and GranAnn spent lots of time in the kitchen making homemade play dough (a vintage recipe from Raintree where Merrill and I spent our young years), sugar cookies and washing lots of dishes. I really am beginning to think we could get Amelia a job washing dishes as she could spend all day long in front of the sink and we could use the extra money.

The hired help in action (with my flowers).

I LOVE LOVE LOVE french toast topped with a berry compote which I typically get homemade for Mother's Day, birthday, Valentine's Day and the like. Of course there could not be activity in the kitchen without Amelia helping out. Oh, and don't forget Elmo and "Monster Cookie" who are never more than an arm's reach away from Amelia.

One of Amelia's many Valentine's gifts was some kiddie kitchen gear from GranAnn. Here she is testing out her new giraffe whisk.

We do have utensils in our home and you can even see the one she had been given to use. When the goal is to eat nothing but syrup for breakfast I suppose licking the plate is more efficient than a spoon or fork.
Loving her sugar!
Our little fashionista loaded up on new clothes from both her Grandma's this Valentine's Day. This is a good thing considering she recently has started going through no less than three outfits a day. The outfit changes have nothing to do with potty training but are all about fashion. She takes her clothes picking out seriously.

Amelia got her first flower which came all the way from Papa in Phoenix and is still proudly displayed in a sippy cup.

Baby It's Cold

We've spent a lot of time at home since the first of the year. Between the lovely gray Chicago winter and my nesting instincts I have come up with all kinds of projects. We have been busy getting our master bedroom and bathroom done (finally), turning Amelia's room into a room for two, putting shelving in many of our "undershelved" closets and other miscellaneous projects. Mark and Amelia have been very patient putting up with many weekend mornings of Home Depot, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Target, etc. I think their patience and our credit card need a break. We are almost done with all the projects so now we can focus on our last weeks of a family of three.

Amelia has been working on perfecting her makeup applying skills. I don't think brown eye shadow is the best color for her cheeks.

Last week Amelia's new toddler bed arrived. We decided to get it and let her warm up to the idea of a bed instead of her crib. She was so excited and from the moment it was put together she has insisted in sleeping in her, "big girl bed."

Amelia has been very helpful with all the projects. She spackled holes in her closet, unfolded all the clothes that had just been organized and lost screws that were to be put in her new bed.
A happy girl playing on her new bed. She gets so excited to go to sleep in her bed but she has had some trouble falling asleep and waking up at night. We wondered how long it would take her to realize that if she wasn't happy in the bed she could get herself out of it. Well during nap time today we heard some drawers closing and when we went into her room she had taken out a bunch of baby toys (that I had just put away) and was pulling her wipes out of her dresser. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Mama I blow my nose." There is nothing Amelia hates more than having her nose blown so I highly doubt that was what she was doing. Mark was proud of her as he thought that her comment showed that she can think on her feet.

Oh, yes we also got a little bit of snow this week. Chicago Public Schools have not had a snow day since 1999 and they had two this week. Here in Chicago we are pretty tough about snow. So what if you get 6" of snow? Put your boots on and get to the train. The 20" of snow that came Tuesday night sure put the City on pause. Both of our offices were closed Wednesday so we had our first family snow day. Amelia woke-up to Dada outside shoveling. She took this photograph of Dada shoveling while giggling hysterically. I'm not sure why she found Mark shoveling so hilarious but I don't think he was laughing at the four foot snow drifts across our driveway. This was the view out our window at about noon Wednesday. The plows had pilled up so much snow that SUV's had snow within two feet of their roofs and the snow was blowing so hard the streets looked like they had five feet of snow covering them.
What else does a girl do on a snow day in February but bake red velvet cupcakes? Our little Betty Crocker loves to pour the ingredients in the bowl, stir the batter and sit and wait for her goodies to come out of the oven.
The proud baker and her fabulous cupcakes!

Christmas Vacation

We started our long Christmas vacation celebrating with the Lang Family in Waukegan. The kids didn't know that we were having a contest to determine who was the best behaved but we were. Charlie won by a long shot as there really was no competition. I think part of where we (and by we I mean Mark) went wrong was getting the girls as hyper as possible right before we sat down to dinner.

We couldn't get Amelia to sit at the table for anything as she kept telling us that she wanted to go play upstairs with Georgia and Dada. She proceeded to spend our Christmas meal sitting on the stairs and crying. It was lovely background noise to our meal.How do you finally get two little girls to behave themselves at the same time? Why of course you put them in front of their Grandma's cookie tray. Seeing how JuJu is infamous for her Christmas cookies there were plenty so the girls didn't have to worry about sharing which probably would have turned a lovely moment into a series of, "mine."The grandkids (and us parents) were all good and spoiled. Amelia didn't waste any time getting to work on her new laptop and cell phone while wearing her new sweater.

We woke up on Christmas Eve and hit the road to Kansas. It was a somewhat eventful drive and after eleven hours on the road in a snow storm, witnessing a spin out accident in front of us and seeing many cars in the ditch we arrived safely in Lawrence. Amelia really could not have been any better. I was expecting a road trip companion similar to LB but low and behold Amelia was happily entertained in her carseat the whole ride.
Of course Amelia spoiling didn't end when we left Illinois. The highlights of her Christmas in Lawrence were her grocery cart from GranAnn and bag of fishy crackers from Papa. She made it clear that the bag of fishies was hers. She was right as the present did have her name on it but you would think she could have shared a fish or two. Auntie M helped herself to A fish and got caught by Miss. MINE.
My mom was so sweet and had a friend show up dressed as Santa on Christmas morning and bring Amelia a keyboard. Amelia FREAKED out. She wailed, tried to climbed me and was an overall mess. This picture tells the story. It really was pretty hilarious.

The excessive sugar didn't end either when we left Illinois. I think we all ate a year's worth of sugar while in Kansas. Thank goodness my glucose test was before Christmas. I asked Amelia what her favorite part of going to GranAnn's house was and she said, "snowman cookies."

We checked out the ceramics studio in Lawrence where Amelia made a serving platter for GranAnn and coffee mug for Dada.

Overall we had a wonderful week in Kansas, caught a game at Allen Fieldhouse, hit up some of our favorite restaurants, drank lots of local Kansas beer (Mark of course did that, not me) and got to spend time with many friends that we miss dearly. I didn't manage to take pictures at any of those get togethers so if anyone has any please share!

After spending New Years at the Meyers we headed back to Chicago and were treated to an uneventful drive. Now that we are back home we are going to be busy working on potty training, home projects we want done before #2 arrives and sharing. "This is mine" has become Amelia's favorite phrase and I don't think her losing her only child status is going to help......